Ten Pound Poms

If I had to summarize my experience of watching 'Ten Pound Poms' so far I would have to say that Danny Brocklehurst was determined to work his story around xenophobia and racism, and chose the Labour Camp outside Sydney as his best way to integrate those themes, as it brought many races closer together. Unfortunately, it makes the story flat as every day we see Terry going off to do his bit in a hole in the ground, and in the evening he gets together with the other immigrants for a drink or party. It's a generalization of course, but many members of the Maltese side of my family went to Australia at this time and they ended up in the big cities. I think this makes the whole story seem untrue. There may have been one of two places that were like the camp, but they were probably the exception rather than the rule and this is where this story falls flat for me.

The production values, acting, scoring, cinematography are all world class. It's just that the story falls flat, it is too crowded, and the characters are not three dimensional enough. I will make an exception for the Terry character, and I think the Michelle Keegan character could have been worked better. The orphanage scene was embarrassing and unconvincing.

I think the subject material needed a more sensitive approach and probably should have come from someone with more first jhand experience of the process of emigration.

This is a very uneven season (not sure if it's a series) because far too much is thrown into 6 episodes. This would have benefited from 8 episodes or less story. A bit like when someone says look in a mirror before you leave and take off one accessory. I feel like we didn't get to know the characters as well as we should have done the more promising or interesting ones were left with little story development or left high and dry mid way thru. There's good performances from the leads with what they have to work with but overall the show won't leave you wanting a second season. I can't comment on the historical accuracy but as this is a drama entertainment show I'll presume it's loosely based on history so I'll lean heavily on the entertainment side of things. It's passes the time but is easily missable.

As much as this was a depiction of what happened when Ten Pound Poms came to Australia, I think the important thing to remember is that this is a drama show, not history. Having said that, an old ex of mine was a 6 year old when his family came to Australia on a boat, landing in Perth and then Sydney, before being transported to Ipswich, Queensland. They were also under the impression that they would have somewhere to live and jobs would be plentiful. The accommodation was very much what was shown here, and the attitude towards the "Poms" was very much the case in this show. I really hope that there is a season 2, it was a little slow to start but it got better as it went along. Loved the style of the era and the depiction of Australia at the time. Although I have to say that I found the racism awful and I was bubbling with anger as I watched. Sad to think that the Australian "spirit" was severely lacking.

In the 60's most large establishments had switchboard operators , like Hotels and Hospitals . To make an overseas phone call you would call the international operator , give them the country and phone number and the operator would call back when call was connected . This series was set in 1956 . From the 40's and onwards everyone had Radios for music and entertainment as well as for the BBC news and Cricket . Throughout this series no one had a radio . Radios were as popular then as mobile phones are as popular today . Steven Curry was completely outstanding as J. J. plus all the main character child actors were really good .

Not an unforgettable drama or a terrible one, somewhere in the middle. One of those shows where you should probably bail if the characters and storyline in the first episode don't grab you.

It had decent production values, with a few sound and lighting wobbles and a solid ensemble cast. Michelle Keegan's character felt a bit far-fetched in some of her endeavours, but fans will no doubt forgive her. One of its strengths was the number of strong female characters.

If you get on board with the first episode stay with it, if you don't jump ship as it continues along the same path.

On the downside there was a lot of heavy-handed messaging that didn't need to be there.